Ryan Coogler who was wearing a hat, sunglasses and a mandated facemask attempted a cash withdrawal inside the bank at the teller. He presented a handwritten note which read, "I would like to withdraw $12 000 cash from my checking account. Please do the money count somewhere else [sic]. I'd like to be discreet." The teller became suspicious and called the police. The incident happened at a Bank of America in Atlanta on January 7.
The Black Panther director was falsely detained and Police have now released bodycam footage of the incident on Wednesday which showed the filmmaker getting handcuffed and being wrongfully arrested as he is caught completely off-guard amid the situation. The video shows police officers approaching the Black Panther director while he was standing at the bank teller counter. After one of the cops pulls a gun before detaining Coogler, the 35-year-old can be heard saying in the video, “Whoa, whoa, what’s going on?"
The footage further shows Coogler maintaining his cool and cooperating with the police despite being wrongfully detained. The video further captures Ryan's conversation with the police outside of the banker where he says "If you just run my name, you’ll understand why you should take me off of these cuffs." He later also adds, "You could not do it, but it’s going to be really bad for you", via Page Six.
Regarding the incident, Coogler also released a statement to Variety where he mentioned that this "should never have happened" and added that Bank of America worked things out with him to his satisfaction and that they have moved on from the incident. Netizens were left in shock after watching the bodycam footage released by police. Several fans of the director sent him love and support while calling out the employees at Bank of America whose false accusations led to the director being detained.
